Hero's Bane
by LuckyRabb1t
Summary: A bit darker than what I'm used to writing, a short story based around the time when Bell gets captured by Phryne - no graphic descriptions, its mostly implied from Ais and Freya's point of view.


—

"_Bell…?"_

She reached out slowly, tracing her fingers along his face.

"…_nng.."_

Her breath caught in her throat as he stirred.

Then. He lifted his head.

Seemingly awakened by her touch, he recoiled, his body shaking as he screamed out in a muffled voice.

"_NNGH!"_

"_Shh… Bell…!"_

She pulled him close, holding his head against her shoulder as he cried out.

"It's okay… _it's okay…"_

She reached around his head, undoing the grimy cloth that covered his eyes.

"Look at me... _it's me…_"

Ais smiled weakly as she pressed her hand to his face, wiping away a line of tears that rolled down his dirt covered skin. Next was the gag - a filthy towel that had been hastily shoved into his mouth.

"…_ah…!"_

His eyes that had once shone bright red now seemed dull and devoid of life. His voice was hoarse, his cries feeble and weak.

"_Shh… it's okay…don't speak…_"

She reached up to where his hands were chained to the wall. In her hands was a silver key.

_Click._

With a loud thud, the chains holding him up hit the ground. He fell forward into her arms, tears, once more falling from his eyes.

As she held him there, she breathed out with relief.

"_I have you… you're okay…"_

She grasped his hands in her own, holding them between them as she leaned her forehead against his. Crimson lines circled his wrists from where he had previously strained against the metal cuffs.

The boy closed his eyes, and she slowly leaned him back to rest against the cool stone cellar wall. A slight breeze flowed through the room from an open window, but it did nothing to alleviate the sour smelling air that filled the room.

It was a culmination of the stale scent of blood and mold - of dirt and grime, of trash and disease.

As Ais knelt there on the ground, wrapping Bell's bare body in a nearby scavenged sheet, her foot knocked against something on the floor.

_Tink._

A small glass vial rolled across the slightly slanted floor. In it were a few remaining droplets of light red liquid. Her eyes followed the bottle, for the first time noticing the slight stream of blood that ran from Bell's body along the curvature of the floor.

_Tink._

It rolled to a stop as it collided with another empty vial.

_Tink._

Next to it, the vial clicked as it slightly disturbed a larger pile of empty bottles that had all collected over a drain in the ground.

Ais narrowed her eyes as she stared at the empty pile. Despite her limited knowledge, even she knew what those bottles were, what they meant, and what they were used for in this part of the city.

Her heart tightened in her chest as her breathing stagnated. She continued to look around the cellar despite her mind telling her not to. On a nearby bench was a small mat with several rusty tools laid out on it. Each of them was speckled with blood.

On the wall, a whip was curled and hanging from a hook. At the end, an iron tassel was fixed to the blood soaked rope.

Her breath caught in her throat once again as she scanned Bell's body wordlessly. Countless bruises and wounds decorated his skin. Lashes, cuts, burns and slashes. A ring of purple encircled his neck. Spots of black and blue speckled his torso. However, what stood out to her was the most fresh trails of blood on his chest.

Ten, almost perfectly straight cuts down his chest. Blood dripped from the strangely thin lines, not yet dried.

Whoever had inflicted those wounds was still nearby.

_Good._

—

He had seen it happen many times before. Lady Freya would be in the middle of something completely unrelated, when an electric shock - a slight tingle on the back of her neck - drew her to the window, alerting her to the boy's appearance.

"_Where is he… where is he… wh—"_

Freya pressed her hands to the glass, her lips trembling as she looked far out over the city. Her eyes were mad, shaking as they searched the distant world below them.

"N-no…!"

Her head slowly hung in defeat as her knees buckled and she sank to the ground.

"Lady Freya…!?"

Ottarl moved to her side in an instant, kneeling close behind her, yet still not touching her.

"He… his…"

Tears streamed down her anguished face as her shaking eyes fell to the floor. Ottarl remained still, shock and confusion in his eyes as his normally so composed Goddess broke down before him.

"_It's black… it… it's…"_

The boy's soul. He had often heard her describe it was shockingly pure, as white as virgin snow. But it now appeared that something, or someone had tainted him.

"…your orders, my lady."

The goddess of beauty stilled her shaking form, her tears dried away as quickly as they had come.

"_My orders…"_

Ottarl shivered as a dark aura seeped from her body.

"My orders…?"

Her complete shift sent a chill through his body.

"Go… go out… take everyone… and _bring me that bitch's head._"

Ottarl's eyes widened.

"_Ishtar…_ she's crossed the line…"

What he was hearing was heresy. To kill a deity, it was the same as condemning your soul to eternal punishment. It was well known that deities could never die - only return to Heaven. So when an adventurer who had broken the unspoken law inevitably reached the end of their lifespan, they were submitting themselves to an eternity of torture at the hands of the wrathful deity they had slain.

Such is the wrath of the gods - unyielding, patient, and ever so cruel.

But who was he to disobey his goddess' orders. He would always fulfill them no matter the consequences, no matter the difficulty. That was the meaning of his pledge, his unwavering loyalty, his undying allegiance to his goddess.

"…your wish… is my —"

"_Wait. _No."

Freya moved to her feet, her eyes still facing forward.

"I've changed my mind. Death is not enough of a punishment for her."

Her purple eyes gleamed in the low light.

"_Lead her to me. Alive_. Kill anyone who gets in your way."

That, of course, was much simpler.

"Of course, my lady."

He would always accept his orders.

And he would never fail.

—

The sound of footsteps scraping at the entrance caused her to turn around. Behind her, the massive figure of the Ishtar Familia Captain filled the doorway.

Ais turned her head back to Bell. Her finger tips gently traced across his skin, running down the ten perfectly straight bloody lines on his chest.

"So it's you, dolly…"

The toad's rasping voice filled the dark room.

"You know… this is perfect… I can finally get revenge for what you did to me all those years ago…!"

Ais didn't bother replying. The only response she offered was the _hiss_ of steel as she drew her sword from her side.

"…"

Her gaze flowed over the woman in front of her. Her eyes fell to the woman's hands, focusing on her long red nails.

_You._

Her eyes narrowed as her jaw tightened with anger.

"So you remember me?! Hah! That's good to see…!"

She didn't. But Phryne continued to laugh as she watched Ais' delicate shoulders tremble, shaking up and down with a deep, burning rage.

The Amazon only continued to applause herself, gloating and feasting upon her own deluded sense of self importance.

She was too preoccupied with her epiphany that she didn't notice the words falling from Ais' lips.

"…_Tempest…"_

With a single word, her spell was complete. However, this time, it was different. Gone was the gentle, green winds that usually surrounded the girl. In its place was a dark black storm that churned and howled as it enveloped her body.

"W-What the…"

Phryne didn't stand a chance.

Ais flew forward as the wind at her feet propelled her through the air.

_Thump._

The pommel of her blade sunk into Phryne's temple, sending her flying back the way she came.

"_You bitch..!"_

Phryne growled as she stumbled to her feet. In her hands was a sparkling golden axe.

"I'm gonna take that pretty head of yours right off your shoulders…"

She lunged forward, slashing with her axe in a broad arc.

_Slow._

Ais ducked down, her blade already moving.

"_A-AH!"_

Blood dripped down her saber as she withdrew it from the Amazon's leg.

"Y-You… acting all cocky just because you're a higher level than me!"

She stumbled back, turning her back and running as she revealed her true nature. In an instant, Phryne had come to understand the gap between the two of them. And it scared her.

"I'll show you…! _Girls!"_

She shouted out as she exited to the courtyard. Her voice carried through the air, echoing through the nearby areas. All around her, Amazons began to climb over the wall to answer her cries. They jumped down from higher stories of the building and descended from the shadows. They surrounded the doorway from which she had stumbled out from. In their hands were a multitude of shining blades. On their faces, an array of smirks and grins.

Phryne swallowed nervously as she backed up a bit, watching the doorway for any signs of movement.

_Clack._

The door swung open.

"You bitch… you think you can just walk in here and —"

One of the surrounding Amazon's spoke up only for their voice to die away almost instantly. Ais had stepped out of the building. In her arms, was his unconscious body wrapped in a sheet. Her eyes were dark and steady, her face emotionless and still.

"—erk…"

Collectively, the members of the Ishtar Familia stepped back.

"What are you doing!? Attack!"

The Amazons, the feared species of all female warriors, respected one thing and one thing alone. _Strength_. And as they stood there, their swords shaking in their hands and their bodies petrified with fear, none of them could even lift a finger against the walking embodiment of that aspect before them.

Ais didn't even need to draw her sword.

Her blank stare was enough to dissuade any challengers from approaching. In fact, any amazon who had answered their captain's cries for help soon found themselves backing away as Ais stepped out of the building. Among them, was the woman known as _Aisha_.

The normally headstrong and bold warrior found herself shaking as she met Ais' gaze. She couldn't even lift a finger to oppose her, nor did she want to. For what she saw in those golden eyes was no honorable battle. In her eyes only lay meaningless bloodshed and absolute carnage.

"W-What are you doing?! Kill her!"

Phryne continued to shout as she struggled to stand. Her bleeding leg wobbled and gave out beneath her, bringing her to the ground.

"A…ah…w-wait…"

She cried out as she tried to crawl backwards away from the approaching knight. She watched as Ais walked to a nearby tree, gently setting the boy down to lean against the trunk. She paused for a moment, her eyes softening as she ran her fingers through his hair. They all saw it, how gingerly she traced his skin, how gently she held him.

"…oh…!"

Phryne gasped as she witnessed the Sword Princess' act of something akin to intimacy. As Ais stood and began to approach the Ishtar Familia Captain, Phryne held her hands up defensively.

"I… I didn't know he was yours..!"

_Shkk._

The girl's eyes flared with anger and she brought her hand up to move in a blur.

"_A-AUGHH!"_

Aisha turned her head to look at the ground as Phryne's screams echoed out into the night.

_Fool. That mouth of yours has just sealed your fate._

"…get up…"

"M-My… my eye…!"

Phryne clutched her bleeding face where Ais' blade carved through her flesh.

"Get. Up…"

"Y-You guys..! Are you just going to let her kill me!?"

Aisha shivered as Phryne's words reached her ears. But that was just it. Words. One by one, the Amazons began to look away. They held no allegiance to their captain. Only to Ishtar. She winced as she felt Phryne's gaze linger on her.

_As if we could stop her…!_

"N-No…"

"_I said."_

Ais' blade whistled as it cut through the air once more.

"_GAAH!"_

A spray of blood followed the arc of her sword, painting a crimson streak on the ground.

"_Get up."_

Phryne fought her way to her feet, her body shaking and trembling as blood continued to course down her face.

"P-Please… _have mercy…!"_

"Three…"

She looked up, confused.

"That was three cuts…"

Ais straightened her blade before her once more.

"…you have seven more."

"W-What!?"

_Fwsh._

Her golden hair swayed behind her as the _Kenki_ stepped forward. In a deadly dance of silver strikes, her sword flashed out repeatedly. With each movement came another spurt of blood from the larger woman.

"_Urk! A-Agh!"_

"Four… _five_…_!"_

"Plea—!

Her cries for forgiveness were _cut_ short.

"_Six! Seven!"_

They could practically smell the fear emanating from the toad as Ais raised her voice. But more than that, it was the sheer anger that rolled off the girl's shoulders that made them shake.

_Thunk._

Phryne fell back as she tried to escape Ais' attacks. She scrambled along the cobblestones, trying to regain her footing and run away.

"You didn't show him any mercy when he cried out did you…?!"

She gave her no quarter, storming over to her and lashing out with her saber. The image of his body, dirty and broken, had been burned into her mind. She hated the fact that she was remembering it. She hated that she would never forget it, that _he_ would never forget it.

"_Eight!"_

"_P-Please! Merc—!"_

Phryne screamed once more as a long streak of red was carved into her back.

"_What about when he begged, when he screamed, where was your mercy then!?"_

A trail of red followed Phryne as she made her way around the courtyard, blood dripping from the eight wounds opened up across her body.

"Y-You…"

Phryne looked up into the eyes of the young girl from where she sat in a sniveling, bleeding mess. What she saw terrified her.

The emotionless, golden knight, the _War Princess_, was crying.

"…_why…!"_

Tears streamed from her eyes as her body shook with grief.

"…_why…?"_

Sensing an opportunity, Phryne pulled herself to her knees. She pressed her head to the ground, prostrating herself before the girl.

"I… I messed up..! I know..! But—! "

She continued to plead, to beg. But her words only served to instill more wrath in the heart of the knight. For it wasn't out of sorrow for herself that the girl cried. Phryne's desperate attempt to appeal to that emotion of hers was misjudged - for it simply didn't exist.

"_You…!"_

"_AAGHH!"_

Ais drove her blade straight through Phryne's arm, stabbing all the way through and even piercing the stone beneath her. The black flame in her heart had gone stronger. It blazed like a wild fire, consuming her body and burning her up from the inside out.

"_Nine…"_

"Why… I-I… I don't understand…!"

Ais' voice was a mere whisper as she neared her final count. Below her, Phryne writhed in agony as tears fell from her eyes.

"He's… he's not even in your Familia! _He's a nobody!"_

Ais shook her head slowly as the tears in her eyes slowly dried away.

"You're wrong… he's not a nobody…"

She spoke softly as she refuted the older woman's cries.

"He's someone who is precious to me…"

She drew her blade from Phryne's arm.

"…_and you dared to defile him with your touch."_

Phryne's eyes widened as she lifted her hand to reach up.

"_Don't—!"_

Her voice died in her throat as Ais stabbed down one last time.

"…_Ten…"_

Her saber sunk into Phryne's flesh, the silver blade burying itself within the woman's body.

Already, a pool of blood began to spread along the ground.

"…"

Ais stepped back as the growing tide of crimson threatened to reach her boots. A slight murmur spread through the crowd watching, a faint whisper that carried over the city.

"_Phryne had fallen."_

With their captain lying still, her body only growing colder, the amazons nearby bowed their heads - averting their eyes from the corpse. And still, no one dared to move a muscle.

"…"

Ais slashed her saber to the side, flicking the remaining blood off her blade. With a slight _click_, her sword rested in her sheath. There would be no more bloodshed tonight - at least not by her hand.

Without another word, nor a second glance back, the girl moved to take Bell back into her arms. And she walked straight out of the Pleasure District, disappearing into the city.

No one tried to stop her.

No one could've anyway.

—

But with the disappearance of one foe came the appearance of another. One who was even _more_ bloodthirsty than the previous. A force that was even more vengeful, even more destructive.

They appeared from the darkness, their bodies moving swiftly through the district. Their blades cut through the amazons already in disarray, and their torches lit the flames of war. Like the harbingers of death himself, the men and women of Freya Familia razed the pleasure district to the ground.

Their bodies clad in jet black armor, their faces hidden behind a veil of matching obsidian masks.

They offered no sympathetic glances, no sparing strikes. They were merely acting as the emotionless blade of the Goddess who controlled them, cutting down the enemy without a second thought.

"_F-Freya!?"_

High in her tower, the bronze skinned goddess of beauty gasped as her kingdom fell around her. Light from the flames below reached her face, basking her horror stricken features in a light orange glow. Alongside the flames rose the screams of the dying, the screams of the anguished as well as the sound of steel clashing against steel.

This jumble of noise pierced her ears, it grated her mind, and it forced her higher and higher up the tower as she attempted to flee her inevitable doom.

_Clack. Clack. Clack._

As Ishtar fled, climbing up her burning tower, the sound of those footsteps followed her.

"It's her… _I know it..! She's here!"_

Trembling words fell from her lips as she sent wave after wave of guards back down the stairs, failing to notice how each of them, too, shook with fear.

_Clack. Clack. Clack._

Those approaching footsteps never ceased. They never wavered, they never even slowed down.

"F..Fools..! What are they doing!?"

But then it happened. She had reached the highest floor.

"_There's nowhere left for you to run…"_

Her voice drifted out from the smoke and shadows.

"Y-You…!"

Ishtar's voice faltered as Freya stepped into view. Her eyes glowed in the dark, emanating a faint purple light as her piercing stare froze Ishtar on the spot.

"There you are…"

"W...Why…. _Why are you doing this!?"_

She screamed out, her face flustered and turning purple with anger.

Freya simply smiled.

"Because you took something that belonged to me."

"H-He… he doesn't even belong to you! He's one of Hestia's children!"

Freya waved away her complaint, dismissing her argument with the flick of her hand.

"_Incorrect._ Everything I see, _is mine_\- and he was no exception."

Her eyes glinted in the dark as she continued to step forward.

_Wait..! Tammuz!_

Behind the approaching Goddess, her vice-captain Tammuz crept out from the shadows.

_She doesn't see him…! He can save me!_

"I-Is that so?!"

A bead of sweat dropped down Ishtar's face as she laughed in a poor attempt of a bluff.

"Well, I guess there are some things that even you can't have!"

The silver haired goddess tilted her head.

"Oh…? And what would that be?"

_Now, Tammuz!_

"You're about to find out!"

"I think you misunderstand, Ishtar, because…"

Tammuz lunged forward, a flashing dagger in his hands. But Freya was faster.

Her eyes flared with a purple gleam as she spun. Light traced her movements, glowing as it trailed behind her eyes.

In an instant, Tammuz stopped.

_What..!?_

His hand lowered, and his knife fell to the ground with a dull _clang_.

"…whatever I want, I make my own."

"You… charmed my man…?"

She smiled as Tammuz stepped back.

"_And I always get what I want."_

The Goddess who had been so insulted by Ishtar's actions smiled even wider.

Ishtar's lips trembled in fear as she stammered in disbelief.

"Y-You…"

But even as fear shook her body, anger caused her to move.

"_You think you're better than me!? Huh!?"_

She flung herself forward, her hands outstretched for Freya's throat. Her face became distorted with anger, her expression overcome with rage and emotion.

"You shouldn't frown so much, dear Ishtar - _it ruins your half decent features…"_

Freya moved smoothly, sidestepping Ishtar's pathetic attempt of a charge.

"_What makes you so different from me?!"_

"Why, Ishtar, that would be one simple thing…"

_Huh…? Wait… why am I standing…_

In her blunder, Ishtar had unknowingly positioned herself on the edge of the tower, high above the burning city below.

"_Class."_

_Crack._

Freya lashed out, slapping the stunned Ishtar across the face.

_Class….?_

Her mind faltered as her body fell backward.

_But…!_

"F…_Freyaaa!"_

Her screams followed her down, accompanying her body as she fell from the tower.

_Thump_.

Freya's smile vanished into a thin line as she watched her fall. In instant, the sound of her body crashing to the ground was followed by a bright blue pillar of light.

"_Goodbye… Ishtar."_

All over the district, eyes turned to the sky as the blue pillar of light shot into the clouds above. They all knew what that meant - that pillar of divine aura . It signaled the rare occurrence of a deity's return to heaven. But more than that, it meant that somewhere, under that light, the body of a God lay bloody and broken.

The battle was over. All over the city, countless Ishtar Familia members cried out as their Falna's were ripped from their bodies. Their strength, their power, it had all been taken from them, returning with Ishtar as her body left the mortal realm.

"Ottarl…"

The hulking figure of her Captain appeared at her side instantly.

"_Yes, Lady Freya?"_

"It's getting rather… hot…"

She stepped away from the edge of the tower with one last glance into the distance. Far, far away, she caught a glimpse of two glittering souls - one golden, and one a swirl of black and white.

"Take me back. We're done here."

"Yes, my lady."

With that, their figures vanished from the tower. On the ground, her forces pulled back, leaving in their wake a ruined city, burned to ash.

It was true what they said - to never get involved with Goddesses of Beauty.

After all, hell hath no fury like a Goddess scorned.

—


End file.
